ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Cobb County woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after her toddler died of a fentanyl overdose, according to the Cobb County district attorney.

The district attorney said Jocelyn Romero’s two-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose on Dec. 4, 2023. Romero told detectives she was playing with her son when “he started waving his hands in front of his mouth as though he ate something spicy.”

According to the district attorney, Romero gave the boy water and went to sleep. Later that night, she noticed he was not breathing and that his lips were blue. She took him to the hospital and he later died.

The boy’s toxicology results revealed he had 19ng/mL of fentanyl in his blood at the time of his death; his death was then ruled a homicide and Romero and her boyfriend, Pablo Garcia, were both arrested.

The district attorney said that during the investigation, police found the pair had “heavy involvement” in a drug trafficking operation.

“Romero had at one time, upwards of 6,000 fentanyl pills, dozens of kilos of methamphetamine and fentanyl, and dozens of baggies of crystalized methamphetamine,” the district attorney said. Romero often kept the drugs in the same room where her son slept and brought her son to drug trafficking transactions.

Romero pled guilty to murder in the second degree, cruelty to children in the second degree, possession of fentanyl, trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking fentanyl, and illegal use of a communication facility. She was sentenced to 75 years, with 50 to serve.

Garcia pled guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking fentanyl, and illegal use of a communication facility. He was sentenced to 60 years, with 30 to serve.

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